Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Teaser Tuesday: NEVER BROKEN by Jewel

Hey, friends,

Long time, no blog from me. Today I thought I'd hop back into the bloggy world because I just finished reading one of my favorite books of the year. NEVER BROKEN by Jewel.

"I should probably not be here today. I should probably not even be alive. Being alive, I should have become an addict, knocked up as a teenager, or stuck romantically in a cycle of abuse." - NEVER BROKEN, p. 3

This was such a compelling read. It's a memoir, but there's a lot of interesting encouragements that read as a sort of self-help book/advice your best friend might give you. I really enjoyed getting to know Jewel's history and her stories about growing up in hard-scrabble Alaska. After her dad used her favorite frilly pink scarf as a filter for the faucet (bugs and worms would come through the pipes), she writes about how she learned that no possession of hers was precious.

She writes with a lot of humanity about her parents' lack of parenting and comes full circle to where they are now in life with a full understanding of forgiveness and letting go. She writes about her writing process and also how she always got recharged by the natural world.

I really loved this memoir. Jewel passes the grit test in my book. We need more song-writers with grit. In fact, after reading about her life and re-listening to many of my fave songs of hers, I can no longer really listen to some, but not all, Taylor Swift tunes. I guess I like my lyrics with weight and resonance. I don't want everything all smoothed out for my listening enjoyment. Give me a little sandpaperey sound and poetry that comes from life knocking you around and living to tell the tale. Just my preference.


Monday, October 26, 2015

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Middle-grade author panel


I was fortunate to participate in a middle-grade author panel in Dallas last week. Half Price Books hosted our merry band of authors.

From left to right, author Kate Hannigan, Polly Holyoke, me, Jennifer Ziegler and Jeramey Kraatz. 

Thanks to all who came out and talked books with us!